The Copper Crown

by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison

  Aeron was studying the shifting lights of the display. "If I were leading them in, I would bring them rather by hyperspace on the sunside of Drama's orbit. Far closer to Tara, and shorter, than the path they now take."

  Donal mac Avera's grin was wolf-fierce. "I would say they do not care to risk entangling themselves in the Answerer." That was Fragarach, a sun-gun emplacement, a laser-cannon battery about the size of a small moon, and Aeron smiled grimly in response.

  "I daresay they do not, and that proves their intelligence sources limited. Someone obviously warned them about Fragarach, but--"

  "Exactly, Ard-rian--but could not tell them about military navigation for hyperspace, once they had actually penetrated the Bawn. That is why they sail straight-space, and so we shall have sufficient time, thank gods, to prepare for them."

  "Mm. Doubtless they realize that, too... What of our own fleets?"

  "Called up at the first alarm. Elharn has gone to the Firedrake, and Rohan will join him later. Gwennan Chynoweth has already taken the ship out of starharbor, with a full escort of cursals and heavy destroyers. The main fleet is assembling at the Roads of Grannos, the system navies are mobilizing to defend their own space, and the advance wings go even now to Murias--or what was Murias."

  "Has any trace been found of the Terran Tindal? Where in all the hells could he have got to?"

  "The portmaster at Mardale informed me a few minutes before you came in that Tindal left last night for Gwynedd, in a hired vessel."

  Aeron stared at him. "And the portmaster did not think to inform me?"

  "The Terrans have the freedom of their diplomatic status," said mac Avera, somewhat stung at her implication of neglect. "Which Your Majesty confirmed them in--"

  "Aye, I know, I know. I meant no criticism. Still--why Gwynedd, I wonder? And why last night of all nights?"

  "Do you think he has some connection with the invasion?"

  "It seems not possible, but it is surely beginning to look so. Though how it could be so--" She broke off as Morwen, who had been busy with the generals across the room, came up to them.

  "The declaration of war, Ard-rian. Not though the formality matters now, but just so all is done seemly."

  "It matters, right enough." She seized the diptych from Morwen's hands, signed swiftly Arigna Regina, and slammed both signets into the matrix. "War they have sought of me, therefore red war shall I give them. The terms are as you please, Taoiseach. And in the name of the sainted Brendan, bring in Tindal!" She turned again to mac Avera, who anticipated her next question.

  "All Fian commands are on full battle footing. Douglass Graham is overseeing the alert of the catha on the outlying worlds. On this planet, the Pillars of Tara have been mobilized. Elharn requests orders. We have been at war for fully an hour, athiarna."

  "So it seems, my friend." She gripped his shoulder for an instant, turned to Morwen. "Get me an open farviewer link, and blanket all signals save military ones. Sound the Crann Tarith on every planet so that no one sleeps. I will speak to the people, and I care not if the enemy hears me."

  Within the hour, every farviewer, every viewscreen in Keltia, carried the same image: Aeron, face pale but completely composed, clad in the black battle dress of the Dragon Kinship and seated behind a table in the Commandery. Her voice was grave but confident, and, knowing as she did that the signal would almost certainly be picked up by the invading fleet, cold with menace.

  Mac Avera and Gwydion, among many others, stood outside camera range along the wall, watching her.

  "She does very well," whispered the Fianna leader. "Her father, gods rest him, would be proud of her."

  Gwydion nodded, but made no other response. Twenty minutes ago he had received the first authenticated information about the breaching of the Curtain Wall; as yet only he and Morwen, of all those in the War Room, were privy to it, and they had agreed that he should be the one to tell Aeron, but not until after the broadcast.

  Aeron concluded her brief address; the camera crystals went dark, and she sat motionless at the table for a moment. When Gwydion approached, she looked up at him as if she did not recognize him, then ran a hand over her face and stood up.

  "Aeronwy, there is a thing you must hear," he said quietly. "We have had news of the plan and manner of the invasion."

  "What news?"

  He glanced around the thronged room. "Not here. Come aside a moment." He led her to the windows that formed a great bay in the eastern wall, overlooking Caerdroia, and turned her gently to face him.

  In spite of his precautions, every eye in the War Room, save only Morwen's, who deliberately turned away, was nailed to them even in this poor privacy. None could hear what Gwydion said to her, but all could see the effect of his words.

  Aeron spun away from him to stare out the windows into the dark, unable for the moment to trust her self-control.

  "May the High God Artzan Janco hear me," she said at last, and her voice shook with her anger. "That I may be face to face with Jaun Akhera, and nothing between his throat and my hands--unless it be my sword. Chriesta tighearna! To suborn Tindal was a deed black enough, but to cause a Kelt to betray his own folk--" Her head came up as one more piece of the puzzle fell into place. "Then that was why I could not see--"

  "Not see?"

  "I told you not, but I underwent the taghairm some time ago. I was still being plagued by dreams, and I tried to find out their cause."

  Even in that moment of utter horror, Gwydion was shocked. "You did what?"

  Aeron lifted her chin like a child hoping to brazen out a scolding. "It was no use in any case--and now I see why. Jaun Akhera is a sorcerer fully capable of shielding his cat's-paws from discovery."

  "He was not the only sorcerer in it," said Gwydion grimly. "I had hoped to spare you a while longer. But there is more, and worse."

  "Then say it!"

  "Three there were who contracted Keltia's fall with Jaun Akhera: Tindal, the Kymro Kynon ap Accolon, and--and one other, who used black sorcery to break the Curtain Wall."

  She had caught an inkling of what he was about to tell her, and had gone very still. "And that one?"

  "My sister. Arianeira."

  All the fury, and all the blood, drained from Aeron's face, and Gwydion caught her elbow to support her. But she shook off his hand.

  "Oh gods... Nay, it cannot be true, surely?"

  He nodded, carefully keeping all feeling out of his face and voice, for emotion now would undo them both.

  "True enough, Ard-rian. There is proof incontrovertible. The delay is fault of mine: Haruko and O'Reilly came to Morwen, and then to me, with suspicions of Tindal. But I decided not to speak of it yet to you, for that the information was still doubtful. This"--he indicated the War Room, and, by inference, the war itself--"came all too soon. But now it is certain."

  Aeron's expression had not altered, but there was about her an air of entirely arrested movement, as if her whole being had been checked abruptly in its tracks.

  "What proof is this you speak of?"

  "One survived the attack upon Murias station, and managed to escape in a lifeship before the station was destroyed. She had seen what happened, and who had caused it to happen, and when she reached Caerdroia she summoned Morwen and me to hear her testimony. We have just come from speaking with her."

  "'Summoned,' by the gods! And this one was so certain, was she, of her facts? That it was Ari destroyed the Wall, and Tindal and Kynon her accomplices?"

  "Certain enough, for she swore it to a truth-senser and a robed brehon before she died," said Gwydion with deliberate harshness, and Aeron's eyes fell. "As to Kynon and Tindal's involvement, she said Ari boasted of it to the captain of the station before she killed him... And we have the additional word of Haruko and O'Reilly. Or shall you doubt them too?"

  Aeron shook her head wearily. "Nay, not those two. Have they come, then?"

  Gwydion signaled to Grelun, who stood by the War Room door. Ushered in by the tall Dragon, almost unno
ticed by the others in the room, Haruko and O'Reilly came timidly across the floor, followed by Mikhailova, white and shaken, and Hathaway, who was trying hard to maintain his usual imperturbable demeanor.

  Haruko had eyes only for Aeron. He came straight across the room to her and proceeded to ignore all the diplomatic etiquette he had ever learned, by presuming to address her first.

  "Majesty, we have been told of Tindal's part in the treachery. I ask your forgiveness that we didn't tell you sooner what we suspected. Perhaps if we had--"

  "It would have changed nothing, my friend. Do not torture yourself."

  "I too ask Your Majesty's pardon." The small voice was Mikhailova's, and Aeron turned to her in surprise.

  "You, Athwenna? But why?"

  "I will explain." In a low quick voice Mikhailova repeated to Aeron and Gwydion what she had told Theo in the tower yard. When she finished, Aeron said no word but laid a gentle hand on the Terran's shoulder. Mikhailova looked up, startled, and then a tremulous smile came over her face.

  "No blame to you," said Aeron. "To any of you... But I am sending you home at once, all of you. If you leave the planet now, we will be able to get you back aboard your ship in good time, and you should find it possible to evade the Imperial fleet and get safely away. Though you will have to take your chance there--as will we all."

  "Your pardon again, Ard-rian," said Haruko, "but Tindal, however much an alleged traitor, is still my officer, under my command. Has he been found?"

  "He has not. Last night, I am told, he left Tara, reportedly headed for the planet Gwynedd. A squadron of cursals has been dispatched in that area to look for him. And, given his part in all this, Captain Haruko, I am very much afraid that I must usurp your authority over him. If he has committed an act of treason against Keltia, his diplomatic immunity must be forfeit, and he be punished appropriately when he is taken."

  "I accept Your Majesty's judgment," said Haruko after a short silence, and bowed to her.

  "That is as it will be--but as to your own escape, we will drop a section of the Curtain Wall opposite the breach, so that you may slip out without need of a tow. Fetch what gear you have, and quickly; you must be at Mardale within the hour. Grelun will take you there in an aircar, and put you aboard a sloop of war to bring you to the Sword."

  In spite of his woe, Haruko's heart swelled. Home! For a brief instant he allowed himself to think of all that home meant to him. Then to his own astonishment not least, he heard himself saying firmly, "Ard-rian, I am not leaving."

  He had the rare satisfaction of seeing Aeron brought up short with surprise.

  "Again, Theo, I did not hear you aright?"

  "I said I'm not going." He met without flinching the full blast of her angry stare. "Aeron, I want to stay. I choose to stay. If you send me back to the Sword, I swear I'll take one of the lifeboats and come straight back, right through the middle of the Imperial fleet if I have to. I haven't wanted anything so much in a very long time. Please don't send me away." And he went to one knee before her.

  Aeron had listened to this speech with her expression growing gradually more and more astounded, and when at last Haruko knelt she reached him both her hands and raised him at once.

  "Send you away! Oh my dear friend, that is my will, not my wish... But think well before you throw in your lot with ours. It is a dangerous decision at best, perhaps a fatal one. You might never again be able to return to Earth."

  Haruko was unswayed. "I don't care. I want to stay."

  Aeron surrendered with a laugh. "Stay then!" Looking past Haruko's dazzled face, she saw O'Reilly's alight with the same mute plea. "Aye, and you also," she said quickly, to forestall yet another impassioned entreaty. "But the others, I think, will wish now to be gone."

  Hathaway and Mikhailova looked relieved.

  "Do you wish us to take any message back with us, Lady?" asked Hathaway, suddenly realizing how much he would miss this place, these people...

  Aeron nodded, her attention already back on the big hollow map of the threatened star systems.

  "I have both written and recorded a message to the President and Senate of your Federacy, which I had intended to send them in less desperate time," she said. "In the past hour, I have amended that message, and I pray you both to see it delivered; nay, I charge you to see it so. And, if Captain Haruko consents, I would ask you to take with you my ambassadors--not perhaps the ones I should have chosen later, but now... Well, I would send my sister the Princess Fionnuala, and as chief ambassador--Gavin Earl of Straloch. Also your old friend Morgan Cairbre, and, if the Pendragon permits, the Dragon Emrys Penmarc'h."

  Her eyes met Gwydion's, and they shared the same thought: Fionnuala was the youngest of the immediate royal family; not only would she be better off out of the coming battles, but as youngest she was the one best able to assure the direct succession. As for Straloch, for all his difficult nature he was a matchless negotiator. The bard Cairbre would be Aeron's eyes, and the Dragon Emrys Gwydion's arm.

  "If, of course," she continued, "your ship can carry the extra people?"

  Surprised, Hathaway turned to his captain, and Haruko nodded.

  "The Sword can certainly carry them, and so she will. You will do as Her Majesty asks, Lieutenant. I will supply you a formal entry for the ship's log to save trouble with the Admiralty."

  "And I will do what I can to spare similar difficulty for you who remain," added Aeron. "In the message pouch there shall also be a word to the effect that it was I who held Haruko and O'Reilly here by royal prerogative. The last thing I would have you two face is court-martial in absentia." She straightened, and a more formal air fell upon her. "Then to you, Warren Hathaway and Athenee Mikhailova, who have been our guests and friends in Keltia, I say fare very well. We will meet again, doubt it not. Gods with you." She embraced each of them in turn.

  Hathaway started to reply, then bowed deeply instead, and turned away to bid a warmly affectionate farewell to O'Reilly and a proudly formal one to his captain. Mikhailova made her goodbyes also, hugging the other two long and wordlessly, and then she and Hathaway were gone with Grelun.

  Aeron watched them out of the room, then sighed and looked upon the pair who remained expectantly before her.

  "If I may ask you two," she said, a smile touching the corners of her mouth, "what is the nature of your present allegiance? We are on a war footing here, and I cannot afford to carry noncombatants even if I would."

  "Give me a sword, Aeron," said O'Reilly, "and you shall see."

  "Accepted," said Aeron, and O'Reilly kissed her hand. "Enough. Go to Slaine, she will see you fitted out. And you, Theo?" she asked, as O'Reilly, transported, left them for the moment. "O'Reilly was Kelt from the first, but she was born so, it is in her blood. You have chosen to be of us, and for us, and that is a very different matter."

  He bowed in the formal Japanasian manner, the bow of a vassal to his lord. "My hand is for you, Lady, though it hasn't struck very many blows lately. And also--it's sort of by way of reparation. I should have warned you sooner."

  She understood his pain, and did not smile. "And that is the last we shall say of that... But I need you for a thing more important to me than your sword arm. We shall be meeting many alien minds and thoughts in the days to come, and I shall need all the non-Keltic insight I can get to help me deal with them. The Curtain Wall keeps out more than invading warships; it keeps out ideas. Time, perhaps, to rejoin the galaxy; I have staked my throne, and many lives, on that thought." She touched his arm in a gesture of affection rare with her. "Tell Desmond I wish you armed and outfitted as a Fian, give your log entry to Hathaway, and then return here in an hour's time. I must take further counsel of my commanders--but first I must bid my ambassadors farewell."

  *

  On the small landing-pad behind the Fianna brugh, tucked away in the sheltered ground between the tower and the wall, an aircar waited. It was painted green and gold, as a craft of the Royal Flight, and Grelun already sat at its control
s. Alongside the ship, shivering a little with cold and anxiety equally, were Hathaway and Mikhailova; a few paces off, the bard Morgan Cairbre and the Dragon-warrior Emrys Penmarc'h spoke quietly together as they waited.

  Just within the shelter of the arched tower doorway, Aeron stood with Fionnuala and Straloch. Behind them were Morwen and Gwydion.

  "Time runs short," Aeron was saying, "and the Sword is waiting at the starharbor. What gear you will need has already been stored in the aircar. Nuala--" She took her youngest sister by the shoulders, looked long and searchingly into the clear violet eyes. "Until now you have had little to do with the politics of our kingdom, and your royal duties have fallen but lightly upon you. That is all changed now: You know my will, and my mind, and my love. You are an Aoibhell and a princess, and a child no longer. Do not forget."

  Fionnuala smiled, brushing the strawberry-blonde hair out of her eyes with the same gesture Aeron favored.

  "Nay, I am the Ard-rian's sister, and her servant also," she corrected proudly. "I will not forget." She kissed Aeron, embraced Morwen and Gwydion, then suddenly hugged her sister one last time and ran quickly to the aircar.

  Straloch alone remained. Aeron and he looked silently at each other, and what each read in the other's eyes and mind was not hard to ken. Aeron began to laugh.

  "I shall say it out if it gives you pleasure, Gavin--"

  A rare grin split the Earl's gaunt countenance. "To hear you admit I told you thus? Nay, no pleasure, Aeron; the pleasure, and the honor, comes in my duty: that you have made me your ambassador. I too am the Ard-rian's servant, and I shall follow your orders." He added in a lower voice, "And I shall look after Fionnuala well; you need not worry about that."

  "That I know, and the other too," said Aeron. "Else had I not chosen you..." He bent to kiss her hand, and she embraced him. "Go now."

  The doors of the aircar shut seamlessly behind the little group, and Grelun had the craft airborne in the same moment. It rose straight up above the tower, then arrowed away east over Seren Beirdd and the falling ground where Turusachan sloped down to the lower city. They watched it until it was no longer visible, and even then they stood there a few moments longer.